For the duration of his time on TV baking show The Great Irish Bake Off, Neil Reid, who works in myhome.ie, part of The Irish Times, will share his recipes from the show every Monday morning. This week he talks us through his breakfast picnic loaf from last night’s show.
“I’ll start by saying that chocolate is probably my favourite thing in the whole world. It’s indulgent, fun, and good for you (okay that last one might not be true). It can be a tricky beast to work with and it does require a lot of attention. But when you get it right the results are to die for.
Our challenge this week was to create a “Chocolate Selection Box”. We had to create six elements and present them to the judges in a box. The theme of mine was “Tastes and Inspirations of Ireland”. I took memories and recipes that were in my family for generations and put a chocolate twist to them.
I wanted to push the boat out and show that I deserved to still be in the show. I had chocolate week ear-marked as one I really wanted to get to, to show what I could do. I chose to balance my six elements between baking and other chocolate work using flavours like strawberry, Baileys, a raspberry (just for Lilly) and dulce/dilisk (a seaweed) to lift the chocolate and add colour to my presentation.
My six elements were: chocolate scones, chocolate Madelines, chocolate mousse and sponge squares, Baileys fudge, chocolate cookies with strawberry white chocolate infused filling and white chocolate and dulse/dilisk truffles.
I was over the moon with the reaction from the judges. It was a great feeling. There are two things I’ll take from this week; I’ll never make a swiss roll again and don’t try make fudge under time pressure.
So onward I go to week five – International Week – after getting through a shock double elimination. It won't be the same in the tent without the ever comical Mr Carter and the wonderful Darina. Great to see Clare rise back up after bread week to collect her second Star Baker.
Here are a couple of my recipes for you to try.
Chocolate Madeleines
These only take eight or nine minutes to bake and are perfect with a cup of tea or coffee
150g unsalted butter
115g plain flour
2 level tbsp cocoa powder (70% where possible)
2 level tsp baking powder
2 medium eggs
90g castor sugar
Large tbsp honey
5 tbsp milk
Madeline tin - lightly butter and flour (I used a little cocoa powder to flour it as they were chocolate):
Method
Melt butter and set aside. Sieve the flour, cocoa and baking powder into a bowl. Beat eggs, sugar and honey in different bowl and fold gently into flour mix. Add milk and butter to complete batter. Cool in the fridge for 1 hour.
Pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees. Spoon your mix into the madeline tin and bake for seven to nine minutes.
Chocolate Mousse Squares
Sponge
2 medium eggs
50g castor sugar
50g plain flour
Mousse
150g dark chocolate
75g unsalted butter
2 large eggs (seperated)
Method:
To make the sponge: pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees.
Heat eggs and sugar in bain maire. Whisk until thick and pale and remove from heat. Sift the flour in and gently fold. Pour into seven-inch square tin and bake for 12-15 minutes.
Cool for five minutes and remove from tin to cool fully.
To make the mousse: melt the chocolate and butter together. Remove from the heat and let cool for five minutes. Stir in the egg yolks. Whisk the whites to soft peaks and fold in.
Place a double layer of cling film in the square tin, put the cake back in and pour the mousse over it. Cool for two hours, cut into squares and place raspberry on top to serve.
The Great Irish Bake Off airs on TV3 every Sunday at 9pm.
